Ethnic Reunions in Tourism: The Route to Roots

Abstract

Today’s tourists are seeking connectedness, intimacies and meaning in their tourism lived experiences and desire the need to feel rather than merely gaze. Ethnic reunions refer to tourists’ affinity for travel to the cultural regions where their ancestors originated from. This exploratory study is a thematic investigation into the phenomenon of ethnic reunions within the context of homecoming for Asian migrants. Specifically, it explores the pre-, during and post-travel phases of second- and third-generation Asians seeking ethnic identities and cultural affinities during travels back to their ancestral lands in Asia. A deeper understanding of the link between tourists’ genealogical makeup, destination experiences sought and travel decision-making can be valuable in future research to understand tourists’ travel motivations for tourism planning and marketing within this unexplored tourist segment.